By JOSHUA McKINNEY, Staff Writer
The Los Fresnos Lady Falcons are looking to move past Tuesday’s loss to San Benito and make a run down the stretch of the District 32-6A race.
Los Fresnos (16-8-1, 5-4) is tied with Harlingen High for the district’s fourth playoff spot, so the Lady Falcons are trying to approach the rest of the season one game at a time.
We got the hard one out of the way Tuesday night, which didn’t go so well for us,” coach Traci Blackman said. “But I was telling the girls if we would have beaten them, they still would have been in first place. What we need to be worried about is winning the rest of our games. I told them to focus more on those games.”
San Benito safely leads the district with a 9-0 record, but the Lady Falcons remain only two games behind second-place Brownsville Veterans Memorial.
“The race is going to be tough,” Blackman said. “Right now, (Brownsville Veterans) is in second, but that can change. It’s been like this the last couple of years, not knowing who’s sitting where. Sometimes we knew who was sitting in first place, sometimes we don’t.
“Sometimes it’s a tie and it comes down to the last game. We’ll just have to see. It may come down to the last game.”
Playoff hunt
District 32-4A also has its playoff spots up for grabs, and the Port Isabel Lady Tarpons are in the mix.
Port Isabel (9-9, 5-4), Zapata, Hidalgo, La Feria and Raymondville are within a few games of each other while chasing the three 32-4A playoff spots behind district leader Rio Hondo, which is undefeated in district games.
“It’s definitely the tightest it’s been,” coach Danno Wise said. “Obviously Rio Hondo’s out ahead but after that, it’s a tangled mess and it became even more so when Raymondville beat Zapata last week. That puts pretty much everybody, with exception of the bottom two teams, fighting for a playoff spot.”
All the Lady Tarpons have to do is keep their confidence up and they’ll be able to hang in the playoff hunt down the stretch, says Wise.
“They’re not used to this. Generally, our district’s been pretty well laid out for first, second, third and fourth,” he said. “We’re sitting here with four district losses and that’s new to us. Generally speaking, you get four district loss and you’re out of the race.
“But this year, it’s not like that. There are four of us with four more losses in district. It’s more getting the girls to understand and believe that this year’s different. We’re still right there.”
Hanging tough
Several coaches around District 32-6A have noticed Lopez is a tough matchup this year, despite the uneven record.
It’s a part of first-year coach Jesse Martinez revival of the Lopez Lady Lobos (8-14, 1-8).
“It’s going well We’ve seen quite a bit of improvement,” Martinez said. The record obviously doesn’t show it but the girls have improved individually.”
Martinez thinks the Lady Lobos will have a chance in their next two games against Rivera and Hanna if the offense production improves.
“They’re working hard really hard.” he said. “They’re determined to improve the program, individual skills and reach their goals. Our defense is improving a lot. Last year, we know were weak there. Offensively, we’ve been able to put the ball in play and stretch games out.”
Joshua McKinney covers high school sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @joshuabvherald.